Tuesday, December 18 2018

10:00 My friend, "Magyar" Mike calls at the door and we study Hungarian for an hour. He brings us his Christmas presents, and we return the favour. We agree to resume our "Hungarian hours" on Tuesday, January 8th.

Both Lois and I have been very shocked by how much Mike has aged over the past 12 months. He moves much more slowly, his voice is weaker and he has lost much of his previous enthusiasm, we think. Yikes! How much time do Lois and I have left before we collapse and break down physically (and mentally) - yikes (again), scary !!!!!

"Magyar" Mike in happier times, in 2017 in Prague

together with Stephen (his grandson) and "Magyar" Mary, his wife

11:00 Mike has to leave. Poor Mike - health is so important, especially as we grow older. I read an interesting article the other day in Onion News, which recommends some simple rules to ensure we do not suffer from back pain when we start to age.

According to a report released recently by Johns Hopkins University, there is a simple habit we can adopt to ward off back pain later in life: yes you’ve guessed it!

Yes, the secret is apparently to remember to sit up straight once or twice a month – that’s the best way to keep our backs healthy in old age.

"Our research confirms that the ideal method of achieving lasting back health is to remember out of the blue to straighten your body at any random time during the day, resume the slouching after a few minutes, and then repeat the process once within the next four weeks or so, " said lead author Jackson Hartig, adding that neither strengthening exercises nor stretching routines were even remotely as helpful.

"However, those who suddenly remember to straighten their backs less often than once a month can expect to face chronic discomfort when they grow older." [my italics] 

Hartig went on to say that the straightening movement  must be done unconsciously and that explicit reminders such as post-it notes taped to a computer monitor at the workplace have no effect.

My god, what a crazy world we live in. I must remember to tell Lois about this groundbreaking research, no doubt about that. It could revolutionise both our old ages.

11:30 Lois and I carry on clearing up in the house and preparing for Christmas. I sort out our letter rack, one of the most feared tasks on my to-do list.

12:00 I write a short email to Tünde, my Hungarian pen friend, about recent demonstrations in Budapest in protest against Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and his latest policies.

It is now a bit of a struggle for me to write in Hungarian - my friend "Magyar" Mike’s ability level with the Hungarian language has deteriorated significantly recently, and I spend most of our “Hungarian hours” helping him cope with the language's most basic aspects – my god, what madness !!!

12:30 Lois and I have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a huge afternoon nap.

15:00 I get out of bed and sit down with my computer. Meanwhile, Lois swings by the neighbours (Bill and Mary) to have a little chat - Mary is suffering from dementia, which is a heavy burden for Bill day in day out. It helps him a lot when Lois or other friends pop in and talk to Mary: and he can either join in or take care of a few household tasks, which is useful for him.

While Lois is out of my house, I use the opportunity to design my Christmas card for her. It is the first time in 10 years that we are spending the Christmas season in Haslemere with our eldest daughter Alison (now 43 years old), also with Ed, Alison's husband, and their 3 children: Josie (12), Rosalind (10) and Isaac 8). The family were actually living in Denmark between 2012 and 2018.

I decide to use a nostalgic theme for my Christmas card and include pictures from December 2008, 10 years ago. Alison and Ed only had 2 children then, Josie (2) and Rosalind (6 months). Our youngest daughter Sarah was also there in Haslemere for the celebration,  along with her boyfriend Francis, who owned a yellow Porsche at the time. Sarah and Francis actually got married 18 months later, in the Victorian artist John Ruskin's house, next to Coniston Water in the county of Cumbria / Cumberland.

An excerpt from my nostalgic Christmas card to Lois

I take a little look at the Danish news media, and I see Morten Ingemann's latest comic strip.

The Dane, Morten Ingemann, my favourite cartoonist

Ingemann has updated the famous quotation, often credited wrongly to Mark Twain - in fact, it was actually all the idea of Twain's friend, Charles Dudley Warner: “Everyone talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it”.  Ingemann's 21st Century version says, "Everyone talks about the climate, but nobody does anything about it", which is rather clever of him.

I take a quick look at Ingemann's recent strips and they give me a bit of shock, I have to admit. Ingemann is certainly my favourite cartoonist - no doubt about that. He is especially interested in ugly, overweight, middle aged or older people, the kind of people rarely given attention by most cartoonists.

Ingemann has his finger on the pulse as always - he is well aware that older people tend to remember the trivial things while forgetting the important things, especially at Christmas time when there seem to be so many extra domestic tasks beyond the normal ones.

All of Ingemann’s beloved characters are currently brimming over with the joys of Christmas, this year as every year. A couple of days ago, we saw an ugly, overweight middle aged couple in the bedroom, both of them stark naked: the woman is in position on the bed and waiting: her face is turned away and she cannot see her husband, who is standing at the foot of the bed.

The man is just about to hop up when there is something (we do not know exactly what it is), but there is anyway something about the sight of the woman that reminds the man that he has forgotten to order the couple's usual turkey for Christmas Eve. So he decides to call the local butcher’s shop right away.

After all Christmas is not Christmas without a turkey – that’s for sure. What a heartwarming vignette for this joyous season. Ingemann at its best!

Very amusing, but I would not expect to see such a "just for adults" cartoon strip in a British newspaper. What's wrong with us? Those Europeans will all be glad to say goodbye to us when Brexit finally happens, there’s no doubt about that.

17:45 We have dinner, a bit earlier than usual and afterwards we go out. Lois has to take a book back to the local library. It's raining heavily, which is a bit of shame, but we admire the magnificent Christmas tree in the library’s front yard and the friendly lights in the windows that seem to invite us to step inside. We come home and relax with a cup of coffee on the couch.

The local library this evening, with Christmas tree

in the corner of the building's front garden

19:00 I sit down with the computer and take a little look online and see the BBC news page. I see that thousands of well-preserved dinosaur footprints from at least 100 million years ago have been uncovered in East Sussex on England's south coast. 

At least seven different species were identified by University of Cambridge researchers during the last four winters after coastal erosion along the rocks near Hastings. They range in size from less than 1 inch to more than 2 feet across and are so well-preserved that even skin scales and claws are easily visible. There are more than 85 markings, all of which date from the early Cretaceous period.

How clear these pictures are! And it always gives me immense pleasure trying to imagine these enormous, almost unimaginable periods of time, like 100 million years.

Go back 100 years and the First World War has just ended; go back 1000 years and we have a Danish king, Canute, reigning in England; go back 100 million years and we have dinosaurs wandering around in today's East Sussex. My god, what a crazy world we live in!

We are lucky that we are alive right now, I think, because we live in a time when we can get a good sense of the earth's wonderful past and know so many things that were not dreamed about even 200 years ago. We are also lucky in that the world's idiots have not yet exploded and destroyed the planet, which is a bit of a bonus, to put it mildly.

Aren’t prehistory and dinosaurs totally fascinating? Who would want to study anything else?

20:00 We spend the rest of the evening watching television. An interesting documentary is on, all about the history of Christmas carols in Britain. The host of the program is the charming Howard Goodall.

An interesting program, and incidentally, Goodall confirms that previous generations did not have the slightest idea about ​​the earth's history, or about the origins of ancient monuments such as Stonehenge, let alone dinosaurs. For example, a historian in the 12th century believed that when Stonehenge’s builders had finished setting up all those huge standing stones, a holy celebration was conducted by Christian abbots and bishops. My god, what madness !!!!

Goodall also confirms Lois's opinion that the Victorians in the 19th century ruined the old spirit of Christmas. The Victorians, for example, renovated and modernised a lot of beautiful ancient churches, and destroyed the simple old grace and charm of these old buildings in their original form. They also composed a lot of serious pompous Christmas carols and tried to abolish the more earthy songs that ordinary people had enjoyed for centuries.

But the old tradition of more earthy folk carols still lives on in the county of Yorkshire, at pubs in the local villages. Goodall travels tonight to Worrall, a small village just outside the city of Sheffield, and swings by the Blue Ball Pub to attend one of the pub's Christmas singalongs, which take place regularly in November and December each year.

Many of these earthy Christmas songs and melodies are hundreds of years old and vary from village to village.

The Victorians disapproved of these old songs, says Goodall, because they disapproved of the sight  of ordinary people enjoying themselves. Good grief, what madness !!!

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz !!!!!

Danish translation

10:00 Min ven, ”Magyar” Mike ringer på døren og vi studerer ungarsk i en time. Han overbringer os sine julegaver, og vi gør gengæld. Vi aftale at genoptage vores ”ungarske timer” på tirsdag den 8. januar.

Både Lois og jeg er blevet meget slået af, hvor meget Mike er ældedes i de seneste 12 måneder. Han bevæger sig meget langsommere, hans stemme er svagere, og han har mistet meget af sin tidligere entusiasme, synes vi. Yikes! Hvor meget tid har Lois og jeg tilbage, før vi kollapser og bryder sammen fysisk (og psykisk) – yikes (igen), skræmmende !!!!!

”Magyar” Mike i lykkeligere tider, i 2017 i Praga

sammen med Stephen (sit barnebarn) og ”Magyar” Mary, sin kone

11:00 Mike skal af sted. Stakkels Mike – sundheden er så vigtig, specielt når vi bliver gamle. Jeg læste en interessant artikel forleden i Onion News, der anbefaler nogle simple regler for at sikre, vi ikke har ondt i ryggen, når vi begynder at ældes.

Ifølge en rapport, der blev udgivet forleden af Johns Hopkins University, er der en simpel vane for at afværge rygsmerter senere i livet:  ja, du har gættet rigtigt! Bare det, pludselig at huske at sætte sig oprejst en gang om måneden er den bedste måde at holde ryggen sund i alderdommen.

"Vores forskning bekræfter, at den ideelle metode til at opnå varig rygsundhed er at huske tilsyneladende ud af det blå  at rette din krop på et vilkårligt tidspunkt i løbet af dagen, genoptage ufrivilligt luden efter et par minutter, og gentage derefter processen inden for de næste fire uger eller deromkring, "sagde leadforfatteren Jackson Hartig, og tilføjede, at hverken styrkende øvelser eller strækningsrutiner var endda fjernt så hjælpsomme.

"De, som pludselig husker at ranke ryggen mindre ofte end en gang om måneden, kan forvente at skulle stå overfor kronisk ubehag, når de bliver ældre. "

Hartig fortsatte med at sige, at bevægelsen af at sætte sig oprejst skal udført ubevidst, og at bevidste påmindelser som f.eks. en seddel, der er blevet  tapet til en computerskærm på arbejdspladsen ikke havde nogen effekt.

Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i. Jeg må huske at fortælle Lois om denne banebrydende forskning, ingen tvivl om det! Den kunne revolutionere vores alderdom – det ved jeg med sikkerhed!

11:30 Lois og jeg fortsætter med at rydde op i huse og gøre rent i forberedelse på jul. Jeg ordner vores brevholder, en af de mest frygtede opgaver på min gøremålsliste.

12:00 Jeg skriver en kort email til Tünde, min ungarske penneveninde, om de nylige demonstrationer i Budapest i protest mod den ungarske premierminister, Viktor Orbán, og hans seneste politikker.

Det er nu til dags lidt af en kamp for mig at skrive på ungarsk – min ven ”Magyar” Mikes evneniveau med det ungarske sprog har forværres betydeligt for nylig, og jeg bruger hovedparten af vores ungarske timer på at hjælpe ham med at klare sprogets mest grundlæggende aspekter -  du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!! 

12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng og tager en gigantisk eftermiddagslur.

15:00 Jeg står op og sætter mig med computeren. I mellemtiden smutter Lois ind hos naboerne (Bill og Mary) for at snakke lidt – Mary lider desværre af demens, hvilket er en tung byrde for Bill dag ud dag ind. Det hjælper ham meget, når Lois og andre venner smutter ind og snakker med Mary: han kan være med eller klare huslige opgaver, hvilket er nyttigt.

Mens Lois er ude af huset, benytter jeg lejligheden til at designe mit julekort til hende. Det er første gang i 10 år, at vi tilbringe juletiden i Haslemere sammen med vores ældste datter Alison (nu 43 år gammel), med Ed, Alisons mand, og deres 3 børn: Josie (12), Rosalind (10) og Isaac (8). Familien opholdt sig faktisk i Danmark mellem 2012 og 2018.

Jeg beslutter at bruge et nostalgisk tema i mit julekort og inkluderer billeder fra december 2008. Alison og Ed havde dengang kun 2 børn, Josie (2) og Rosalind (6 mdr). Vores yngste datter Sarah var også med til fejringen, sammen med sin kæreste, Francis, der dengang ejede en gul Porsche. Parret giftede sig 18 mdr senere i den viktorianske kunsteren John Ruskins hus, ved siden af Coniston Water i grevskabet Cumbria / Cumberland.

et uddrag af min årlige julekort til Lois

Jeg kigger lidt på de danske nyhedsmedier, og jeg ser Morten Ingemanns seneste tegnestribe.

Danske Morten Ingemann, min yndlingstegner

Ingemann har opdateret den berømte citation, ofte krediteret fejlagtigt til Mark Twain – faktisk var den skabelsen af Twains ven, Charles Dudley Warner:  alle taler om vejret, men ingen gør noget ved det”. Ingemanns version for det 21. århundrede, er ”Alle taler om klimaet, men ingen gør noget ved det”, hvilket er klogt af ham.

Jeg kigger på Ingemanns nylige tegnestriber og de giver mig lidt af et chok, det må jeg indrømme. Danske Ingemann er min yndlingstegner  – ingen tvivl om det! Han interesserer sig især for grimme, overvægtige, midaldrende eller ældre folk, de slags mennesker, som de fleste tegnere sjældent giver opmærksomhed til.

Ingemann har fingren på pulsen, som altid – han er helt klar over, at ældre mennesker har tendens til at huske de triviale men glemme de vigtige ting, specielt ved juletiden, når der synes at være så mange ekstra huslige opgaver udover de normale.

Og hans tegnestriber strutter for tiden af glæderne ved jul, som hvert år. For et par dage siden så vi et overvægtigt midaldrende par i soveværelset, begge to splitternøgne:  kvinden ligger i position på sengen og venter: hun kan ikke se manden, der står ved foden af sengen. Manden skal lige til at hoppe op, da noget (vi ved ikke præcis hvad det er), men noget om synet af kvinden  minder manden om, at han har glemt at bestille parrets sædvanlige kalkun til juleaften, så han beslutter at ringe straks til den lokale slagterforretning.

Jul er ikke jul uden en kalkun – ingen tvivl om det. Sikke et hjertevarmende vignet til denne hyggelige årstid. Ingemann på sit bedste!

Meget morsomt, men jeg ville ikke forvente at se sådan en ”bare for voksne” tegnestribeserie i en britisk avis. Hvad er der galt med os? De vil være glade for at kunne sige os farvel, når Brexit endelig foregår, ingen tvivl om det!

17:45 Vi spiser aftensmad, lidt tidligere, end normalt og bagefter skal vi ud. Lois skal tage en bog tilbage til det lokale biblioteket. Det regner kraftigt, hvilket er lidt af en skam, men vi beundrer bibliotekets storslåede juletræ i forhaven og de venlige lys i vinduerne, der virker at invitere os til at træde ind. Vi kommer hjem og slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen.

det lokale bibliotek i aften, med juletræ i hjørnet af bygningens forhave

19:00 Jeg sætter mig med computeren og kigger lidt på nettet og BBC-nyhedsforsiden. Jeg ser, at tusindvis af velbevarede dinosaurfodspor fra mindst 100 millioner år siden er blevet afdækket i East Sussex på Englands sydkyst. Mindst syv forskellige arter blev identificeret af University of Cambridge forskere i løbet af de sidste fire vintre efter kystosion langs klipperne nær Hastings.De varierer i størrelse fra mindre end 1 inch til mere end 2 fods på tværs, og er så velbevarede, at selv hud, skalaer og klør er let synlige. Der er mere end 85 markeringer, som alle stammer fra den tidlige kridtperiode.

Hvore er disse billeder dog klar! Og det giver mig altid massiv glæde at prøve at forestille mig disse enorme, næsten utænkelige perioder af tid. 

Gå tilbage 100 år og den 1. verdenskrig er lige sluttet; gå tilbage 1000 år, og vi har en dansk konge, Knut, der regerer i England; gå tilbage 100 millioner år og vi har dinosaurer, der vandrer rundt i nutidens East Sussex. Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !

Vi er heldige i, at vi lever lige nu, synes jeg, fordi vi lever i en periode, hvor vi kan få en god forstand på jordens fantastiske fortid, og vide så mange tinge, som ikke var drømt om for kun 200 år siden. Vi er også heldige i, at verdens idioter ikke endnu har nået at eksplodere og ødelægge den, hvilket er lidt af en bonus!

Er forhistorie og dinosaurer ikke totalt fascinerende? Hvem ville studiere noget andet?

20:00 Vi bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm, der handler om historien af julesange i Storbritannien. Programmets vært er den charmerende Howard Goodall.

Et interessant program, og tilfældigvis bekræfter Goodall, at tidligere generationer havde ikke den fjerneste anelse om jordens forhistorie, eller om oprindelsen af ældgamle monumenter såsom Stonehenge, for ikke at nævne dinosaurer. En historiker i det 12. århundrede troede for eksempel, at da Stonehenges byggere var færdig med at erigere alle de der enorme stående sten, blev der en hellig fest udført af kristne abbotter og biskopper. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

Goodall bekræfter også Lois’ mening, at viktorianerne i det 19. århundrede ødelagte den sande ånd af jul. Viktorianerne istandsatte og moderniserede en masse smukke gamle kirker for eksempel, og ødelagte disse kirkers simple gamle yndighed og elskværdighed i deres oprindelige form. De komponerede også en masse seriøse og højtravende julesange og prøvede at afskaffe de mere jordnære sange, som almindelige mennesker havde nydt i århundreder.

Men den gamle tradition af mere jordnære folkejulesange lever endnu i grevskabet Yorkshire, på pubber i de lokale landsbyer. Goodall rejser til Worrall, en lille landsby lige udenfor byen Sheffield og smutter ind i Blue Ball-pubben for at deltage i en af pubbens jule-singalongs, der finder sted regelmæssigt under november og december hvert år.

Mange af disse jordnære julesange og melodier er hundredvis af år gamle og varierer fra landsby til landsby.

Victorianerne misbilligede disse gamle sange, siger Goodall, fordi de misbilligede synet af almindelige mennesker hygge sig. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

22 :00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzz !!!!!